


A Single Touch

by A_Winter



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, I'm sad so you need to be sad too, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 06:39:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11503830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Winter/pseuds/A_Winter
Summary: There was a reason Hobbits didn’t leave the Shire, beyond tradition and comfort, and that reason was fear. Not fear of the unknown as one might expect but fear of becoming known for the secret which all Hobbits guarded.





	A Single Touch

There was a reason Hobbits didn’t leave the Shire, beyond tradition and comfort, and that reason was fear. Not fear of the unknown as one might expect but fear of becoming known for the secret which all Hobbits guarded. 

As Bilbo Baggins leant over the prone form of Thorin Oakenshield his mind flashed back to a long ago conversation with a grey wizard in his comfortable Hobbit Hole he’d likely never see again. 

X~X~X

“There is more to the world than what lies within your maps and books Bilbo Baggins”

“Indeed there is Gandalf but you know as well as I what that means for a Hobbit, the risk we take leaving the Shire.”

“A risk your mother took and returned all the better for it…”

“So you say and yet I wonder… Gandalf I cannot go with you on this adventure, it would be too dangerous.”

“Life is dangerous dear boy…”

“Gandalf, you do not understand what you are asking of me. You’d have me sign my own death warrant with this request…”

X~X~X

As Bilbo took off his gloves for the first time on the journey he looked down at the barely breathing King who he’d come to love, despite his rudeness, Gold Sickness and resulting banishment. Thorin had fought valiantly, but he was dying and Bilbo could not allow that. 

Bilbo leant down and as he placed his hand on the exposed skin on Thorin’s face the Hobbit took a liberty he was sure he’d be forgiven for, he Kissed the Dwarf lightly on the lips as he’d been wishing to for months.

Bilbo did not break the contact even as the pain began, as he felt the familiar agony of his bones breaking, his heart slowing and his breathing becoming harsh and shallow. Blood began to flow down his arm and into Thorin’s hair as a jagged hole was ripped into his shoulder just as an identical injury vanished from the unconscious Dwarrow beneath him. The Hobbit wanted to scream as he felt his ribs crack and one pierce through his lung causing blood to gurgle up into his throat but Bilbo swallowed down the sound and kept his sealed lips against Thorin’s even as he watched the Dwarf’s eyes flutter open. Bilbo ended the kiss but did not release his grip on the Dwarf’s face and gave the King the best smile he could, the last he would get the chance to give, at the confusion painted across the other male’s dirty, bloody but no longer bruised face. 

Bilbo would have liked to say something to Thorin, Goodbye perhaps, but he knew he was beyond words as his head swam with the blood loss and he began to sway. The Hobbit kept his grip tight until the moment his strength left him. Hours later Dwarves would discover their King, miraculously uninjured cradling the almost unrecognisable, still form of Bilbo Bagging in his arms with tears streaming down his face as he looked into the still smiling face of the Halfling who’d saved his life in more ways than one but would never know just what he meant to the stubborn Dwarven King. 

All because of a single touch.


End file.
